Today was a wonderful and productive day for our team, and the wonderful weather made it even better! The day started early for some as the team from First Baptist Church in Grapeland left this morning after a week of building an incredible roof over the dining pavilion. Their roof has given our team a cool, shaded, and dry place to eat and work. The car taking them back to the airport broke down shortly after leaving this morning, so Gabe and Konrad woke up and went to the rescue, and the team made it back to Port Au Prince in time for their flight! Praise the Lord!
The cows and chickens woke up early this morning, so we did too. We ate pancakes with Haitian “Mamba”, a sort of spicy peanut butter, along with Guava Jelly (YUM!!) and delicious Haitian coffee and juice. With full stomachs, we started our projects for the day. A good amount of prep was done for camp which starts on Monday: gathering supplies, setting up activity areas, mowing (mostly with machetes…I think most of these guys will be much more thankful for a push lawn mower when they return!) etc. Konrad mowed the Archery field with the mower on the Kabota tractor – a first for Jacob’s Well. He finished the task in a matter of minutes and saved us several hours of work with machettes!
We also started construction on a “9-square in the air” game to use at camp, which is a new Frontier Camp favorite. This was funded by the camp kids at Frontier Camp, who have been raising money all year long to help do something for the campers at Jacob’s Well. Most of it is complete, and the remaining PVC pieces should be purchased prior to camp on Monday. Pray that we can find what we need and complete it in time. This is Haiti.
Some of the guys also worked on fixing some plumbing and electrical issues, and working shower heads and knobs are being installed.
After a wonderful lunch with a choice of either tuna salad or mamba and jelly sandwiches, we continued working on camp prep and projects through the afternoon. Of course we made sure to save some time to go play with the village kids as well, and they were eager and waiting when we arrived! The new team members are learning quickly how to communicate through language barriers as they love on these kids, and the kids are quickly learning everyone’s names.
This evening, staff training started in the village, and Peter Marc, the camp’s program director, is doing a wonderful job training up the staff to lead well, love on the kids, and share the gospel! About 20 staff showed up for training today which is a decent turn out, and training will continue after church tomorrow.
We enjoyed a candlelight supper of the most deliciously seasoned spaghetti ever!! Dessert consisted of a tasty bread pudding, followed by tonight’s team study of Jeremiah. Like Jeremiah, who was called in his youth, God calls each of his children to be faithful messengers of his Word. Thank you for your prayers for the team. We are grateful to report that everyone is healthy. Praise the Lord for his continued protection. We are excited to see how God will use each and every one of them next week during camp! Please continue to pray for us.
Orevwa for now. Goodnight!
Greta Watkins